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BEAR FROM ¥ TH LATE RE‘CSEROMETHEUS YVINCTUS.” ADDRESS BEFORE Wi STEWART. A. DB: 28th, 1875. = ves cretsh Be % MW remadaninseurinnege tm CHAMBERSBURG, PA.: A. FOLTZ, BOOK AND JOB PRI 1876.Published by ALUMNI ASSOCIATION of MERCERSBURG COLLEGEPROVE THE US VINCTUs. FELLOw ALUMNI :—It is our happy privilege to live in the latter half of the nineteenth century, and it devolves upon us in our several callings to become persone in the interesting drama of this fast age. Under such circumstances, it will not be inappropriate to this occasion to consider the characteristic of the period, its leading thought and tendency, which, may be fitly set forth in the word—Humamity. There. are two ideals of humanity, a mistaken anda true one. The true ideal of humanity is that which finds its realization in Christ as the central source and final destiny of human being; the mistaken is that which is marked by the complete freedom of the individual from foreign restraint, and makes humanity, in all its activities, purely self-ruling. Though both these ideals certainly do exist at the present day, the latter is the more prevalent in the’ thought of the age. . And not only the thought of the present is built upon it, and to a great extent intoned by it, but it has found expression in some charaeteristic form at all periods of the world’s history. It is not by chance that the Promethean myth form different sides and in different connections, has, as it were, brought ‘tself into the memory of this age with its aspirations after the human. ‘Prometheus is a Titan, who holds it for robbery to be equal with the gods, yet steals fire from heaven. It isA. he who imparts to men, culture and civilization, arts and sciences. It is he who makes them polished and intelli’ nt, but not pious, rather haughty and god-defying like him self. Their knowledge is without the fear of God; their fre dom is without obedience and reverence. While men thus by unlawful means had attained civilization, Prometheus, ax the represenative of humanity, was by the command of Zews, punishment of his crime, chained to a rock, where an eagle constantly tore out his liver, which as constantly grew afresh. Every third day the winged hound of Zeus returned to feed upon the freshly formed liver. This liver, which never dies, is a type of the desires and passions which cannot die, and the in eagle which again and again devours it, whenever it has grown afresh, represents the tortures which are inseperable from desires. Prometheus himself, in his suffering, is an image of humanity escaped from communion with God. With fetters hard as iron, he is bound to the bleak rock of reality. throughout ages devoted to tortures unutterable, from which he is first delivered by Hercules, a son of the gods, who with his arrow slays the eagle and breaks the chains of Prometheus.” It is not merely a lively imagination that has led such men as Coleridge, Schelling and Schlegel to find in this ancient myth a pregnant meaning; to find that it is symbolical of a certain condition of development in the history of the human race. Ooleridge says, in an essay before the Royal Society of Literature: ‘‘I devote this essay to the purpose of removing, or at least invalidating, one objection that I may reasonably anticipate, and which may be conveyed in the following question : What proof have you of the fact of any connection between the Greek mythology, and either the mysteries or philosophy of Greece? I know no better way in which I canuP hotomaunt.._j ~ ov reply to this objection than by giving, as my proof and instance, the Prometheus of Aeschylus, accompanied with an exposition of what I believe to be the mystic import of the work.” Prometheus, as Schelling says, is “not an idea which has been conceived in the mind of some individual; he is rather one of those primary ideas which force themselves into existence. It is not merely the genius of the Greeks—which in this myth gave forth a mysterious confession, in which it acknowledges itself as free and yet as fettered, because its freedom is not legitimate, whilst at the same time it expresses a hope for deliverance—it is the genius of mankind which speaks here. For this myth is of universal significance.’”’ In our day the Promethean myth has found a fresh expression. For in. more than one respect. the present generation has acquired its great advancement in civilization, its many treasures of science, and its sovereignty over nature in the Promethean way. It has obtained these possessions according to its own vain glorious imagination, because it has cut itself loose from the restraints of belief, of obedience and love to God. For this reason, this generation, notwithstanding its boasted liberty, finds itself enchained and given over to secret pangs and anxieties, to a weary, tempestuous waste in its inner world. Its freedom does not satisfy it, but proves to be only a new form of bondage, against which it struggles, vainly striving to break its fetters in a mad attempt at still further advancement in civilization, and in civil liberty, which it fondly hopes may be freedom in very truth, conscious and eternal freedom. Cultivation, art and science, under whatever circumstance they have been developed, are never evil. A perfect condition of human existence cannot be conceived of without them, and 26 though this was not the state of Rome and Athens, yet the degree of advancement which they attained in civilization, art and science has won for them the admiration of succeeding generations. The nation in which these acquirements are sought after in a sporadic and sickly manner, deservedly occupies a subordinate position among the more enlightened nations of the earth. It was by a voluntary and abject submission of herself to powers that are hostile to true liberty of thought, and that restrained and stifled that generous and manly spirit which is the breath of intellectual hfe to any people, and which so strongly permeated the writings of Cervantes, Lope de Vega, and Clarendon, who like meteors in the sky, gave their bright light and then disappeared, that Spain has come to occupy the position which she now occupies among the nations of Kurope. She counts as a cipher in the political transactions and movements of the Old World; her people have lost the prestige won on many a field, and their chief characteristics now are bull-fights and laziness. Examples are not wanting in the history of the past to point this admonition that Christianity cannot, must not, be indifferent to this scientific, socialistic—this Promethean tendency in the world of human thought and action, which is striving so earnestly to solve the mystery of life, which is ] 1 eae i] a a bie an struggling so nobly, but so unsuccessfully, to attain the highest good. Pietism and orthodoxy have not a little cause to A real s : . Bee a Tes ‘ reproach themselves in reference to this worldly humanity. Frequently without an investigation adequate to the subject which they so confidently and arbitrarily criticise, Christians have pronounced the effort of this Promethean humanity wholly wrong. Have they forgotten that the church once > Na Au ; \ a OX he + condemned Galileo for asserting that the earth moved? Do7 they not know that the truth of his assertion is now accepted by the church, and that by accepting it, Christianity has not lost one iota of its influence, nay, has added to that influence, and that the written revelation of God has not ther eby been in one syllable impaired? The church in its development of the doctrines of Christianity has not grasped the whole of the truth at any one time. In its attachment to certain doctrines, it has not given the proper amount of attention to others of equal importance. It has always kept bright before its faith the doctrines of Christ’s special work, but has not oiven sufficient care to the development of the doctrines expressed in the words of the Apostles’ Creed: “I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of Heaven and Earth.” God’s material work, the creation of the world and man, has in the past been slighted by the church. In the writings of Thomas a Kempis this spirit is strongly brought out. “As the bent of his mind was exclusively heavenward, his relation to civil and political life was purely negative. In his eyes it belonged to the world. His bearing toward it was that of a pilgrim and stranger. In all his writing we do not discover one trace of interest in it. The glories of gothic architecture were presented to his eyes, but they had no charms for him. Even nature itself appears to have been strange to him. He confined himself to his cell in the Monastery of St. Agnes, in the Netherlands, and warned his readers against even taking a walk, for he said that it was calculated to distract and disturb the mind, and that few could ever engage in it with any sure or comforting sense that they were thereby improved. He puts no value on any knowledge that is not of direct moral Je immediately annexes an antithesis by which the concession is utility, and if ever he concedes anything to science, he always8 a8 good as done away with. When he has pronounced it to be good he does not fail to say, ‘But a pure conscience and a virtuous life are always to be preferred.. When he has insisted on toleration for it, he proceeds: ‘But blessed the simplicity which leaves the paths of knotty questions and walks safely in the way of divine commandments.’ When he has admitted that ‘every man has by nature a desire for knowledge,’ he adds the restriction, ‘But of what avail is knowledge without the fear of God.’ All which propositions are perfectly true and morally weighty; but at the same time they are depreciatory of science, in as much as they put it in opposition to morality and piety, as if these could not be united with it, nor serve as its basis.” Is it any wonder that humanity groaned under such bondage in which perception continued blind to many pheromena in the natural world and the soul of man? Is it any wonder that humanity, dispised and degraded, sought to release itself from such oppression ? A new perception was certainly awakened in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries by the revival of learning. This great intellectual movement emanated from Italy as its fountain. The three great writers, Dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio, introduced a new era of culture. The mind of Italy turned back upon its ancient history and literature. The study of the Roman classics became a passion. No pains, no expense was spared in recovering manuscripts, and coliecting libraries. The philosophers and poets of antiqaity were once more read with delight in their own tongues. The capture of Constan- tinople by the Turks, in 1453, brought a throng of Greek scholars with their invaluable literary treasures to Italy, and and gave a fresh impulse to the new studies. From Ttaly the same literary spirit spread over Europe. The humanities—o grammar, rhetoric, poetry, eloquence, the classical authors— attracted the attention of the studious everywhere. “Other futures stir the world’s great heart; Europe is come to her majority, And enters on the vast inheritance Won from the tombs of mighty ancestors. The seeds, the gold, the gems, the silent harps That lay deep buried with the memories of old renown ; For now the old epic voices ring again, And vibrate with the heat and melody, Stirred by the warmth of the old Ionian days. The martyred sage, the Attic Orator, Immutably incarnate, like the gods, In spiritual bodies, winged words, Holding a universe impalpable, Find a new audience.” This revolution brought with it momentous consequences. Scholasticism for several hundred years had held almost undisputed sway over the minds of those who sought for something more advanced and better than the ordinary intellectual culture of the age. When the schoolmen arose with their philosophy and logic, thousands of people became their adherents on account of the attractiveness of the new science. By it the doctrines of the church were systematized by it the superstition and enthusiasm of the middle ages wei, counter-poised, by it the intellect of a semi-barbarian people was disciplined. But the narrowness, the extravagant hair splitting, the barbarous style and ignorance of history of the schoolmen were laid bare by the incoming onlture, Bats effects more positive than the downfall of scholaStivism flowed; from the renovation of learning. The Old anfl Niet festament\, Scriptures, the primitive doctrines of the Chix than Peligvon, \ $ i 4 ; € ee =e ee F were brought forward in the original, and bediterie the test hoy ix 5 Ns 3 a = a ‘Q 4 345A hed. # ‘a, L ae So i i} & 7 + S10 which all doctrines and ecclesiastical uses had to be tested. The newly invented art of printing—an art which almost immediately attained a high degree of perfection—stimulated, while it fed, the desire for literature. This thirst for knowledge, this means of gratification, produced a wide spread ferment, and none of the existing institutions were left undisturbed. From the beginning of the humanistic movement it assumed north of the Alps, especially in Germany, characteristics differing from those which belonged to it in Italy. The revival of literature in Italy was to a considerable extent the revival of Paganism. The names of Greek and Roman heros were associated with those of the Apostles and saints, and even of Christ himself. If an example of piety was required, reference was made to Numa Pompilius, renowned for his wisdom and piety. Under the influence of the classical school, says Guizot, ‘the church in Italy gave herself to all the pleasures of an indolent, elegant, licentious civilization ; to a taste for Jetters, arts, and social and physical enjoyments.” In Germany, on the contrary, from the outset, the new learning was cultivated in a religious spirit. It kindled the desire to examine the writings of the Fathers, and to study earnestly the Scriptures. Reuchlin, the recognized leader of the German Humanists, considered his greatest work, his most durable monument, was his Hebrew Grammar. The Humanists were slow in gaining a foothold in the universities. In these establishments Theology had the uppermost seat and the Scholastic philosophy was enthroned in the chairs of instruction. The Humanists at length gained admission for their studies at Heidelberg, Tubingen, and some other places. This literary movement was one of the preparations for the Reformation which followed, and whichHt in the judgment of Guizot “was an effort to deliver human reason trom the bondage of authority; it was an insurrection of the human mind against the absolute power of the spiritual order.” This effort of humanity to emancipate itself was afterwards checked, almost extinguished, by “the rigid enforcement of dogmatic conformity, in connection with punctilious tests of orthodoxy,” a yoke hardly less onerous than that which the Reformation had cast off. The cause of liberty of thought, one of the cardinal principles of the Reformation, again passed into disrepute within the several Protestant communions. But the perception of the human was not to be wholly extinguished. The active volcano is not always emitting lava and ashes. But while only a light cloud of smoke hangs around the crater, deep beneath the earth’s crust the material for an eruption is accumulating, and when the mass has acquired such proportions that an eruption becomes necessary, the molten lava accompanied by huge rocks and ashes is hurled forth. The perception of the human, though for a time almost lost, again awoke to an extent and with an intensity unknown before, in the great intellectual revolution which took place in the eighteenth century, and its effects continue in our own. This rovolution hadan many respects the character of an emancipation. Church, state, society, and systems of ethics and philosophy were attacked by men whose keen intellects made them formidable enemies, and under the influence of their writings the visible church, especially in France, crumbled and fell, but rose again purified. Though in the first half of the eighteenth century the political institutions were not attacked bv the ablest men, yet after that period almost all not only wrote in opposition to the church, but also interfered in political matters, exposing the12 defects of the existing governments, in their relation to the material interests of countries, and breaking down in the hearts of the people their blind fondness for royalty. There was also a vast social revolution. ‘The upper class protected by an imaginary superiority, looked with scorn upon those whose birth or titles were unequal to their own. The only real sources of superiority—the superiority of morals, of intellect, and of knowledge—were entirely overlooked. Man finding himself wholly free from the bondage which crushed him to the earth, became intensely active. Nothing was left untouched. Christianity no longer being regarded as the paramount Good, the idea of the Good, the moral was interpreted by men of genius, and it was announced that apart from Christianity there is morality, there are laws by which human action can be guided. In the sphere of politics, republics or constitutional monarchies rose on the ruins of former governments. In the social world the petty and conventional distinctions of fashionable life were succeeded by those large and genuine distinctions by whioh man is really separated from man. No longer is that knowledge which is of no direct moral utility considered valueless. No longer is there a voluntary: blindness of perception of phonomena of the natural world and the soul of man. By the study of self much that had never before been dreamed of was discovered, and by the study of man’s relation to nature, important results accrued. By the study of nature the development. of the physical sciences received a mighty impulse. Heat, light and electricity, the most important forces by which the operations of nature are effected, were Investigated with signal success. Great philosophers devoted themselves to the development of the theory of the Beautiful, and great poets13 and artists embodied in visible shape the ideal of the Beautiful, and it was found that there is enjoyment in the beauties of nature and in the productions of art which has its value, though it is not religious. This great intellectual activity of the eighteenth century continues in our own age. Many of its results have been obtained in the Promethean way and Christianity is not within its range. But because Christianity is not found within it, it does not by any means follow that there exist no points of contact. The whole realm of humanity lacks the highest Good, because it lacks God, but from this we cannot say that it does not possess a relative good. Modern civilization has a task for us. This task will not be accomplished by erecting a wall between thing sacred and “secular, between religion and human life; by holding ourselves aloof as did the Pharisee. But as Alumni of a Christian institution, we must, in order to do justice to the very humanity from which we cannot separate ourselves, though we bury ourselves within the walls of a monastery, in order to realize in our characters the True, the Beautiful and the Good, maintain that true Christianity which is the religion of humanity in every just sense of the term, which has not only abolished all national antipathies, broken down the wall of partition between Jew and Gentile, but also obliterated the line of separation between religion and the varied activities of human life; we must also be intellectual dissectors, and close scrutinizers of this Promethean humanity, not only appropriat- ing, but also aiding in the development of that which is good, By such a course the Promethean humanity will have no cause to complain of a disregard of the truth contained in itself, and the Christianity of to-day will rise above its narrowness and will be adorned with more of the purity and liberality of the Master.S38 ebte e seni nyt i Fiat Teeter bag Setanta